Obama: 'Majority of Americans Agree with My Approach'

Daniel Halper

November 9, 2012 2:08 PM

President Barack Obama used his new political politician coming off his reelection win to assert his political position ahead of fiscal negotiations with Congress.

"On Tuesday night, we found out that the majority of Americans agree with my approach," Obama said in a statement delivered this afternoon in the White House. "And that includes Democrats, independents, and a lot of Republicans across the country, as well as independent economists and budget experts."

Obama's approach, as he detailed, to the looming fiscal issues is "to combine spending cuts with revenue -- and that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes."

"That’s how we can reduce the deficit while still making the investments we need to build a strong middle class and a strong economy. That’s the only way we can still afford to train our workers, or help our kids pay for college, or make sure that good jobs in clean energy or high-tech manufacturing don’t end up in countries like China," the president said in his first public address since election night.

"Now, already, I’ve put forward a detailed plan that allows us to make these investments while reducing our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. I want to be clear -- I’m not wedded to every detail of my plan. I’m open to compromise. I’m open to new ideas. I’m committed to solving our fiscal challenges. But I refuse to accept any approach that isn’t balanced. I am not going to ask students and seniors and middle-class families to pay down the entire deficit while people like me, making over $250,000, aren’t asked to pay a dime more in taxes. I'm not going to do that."